After a leisurely breakfast watching the workmen re-tiling the swimming pool, we decided to venture on our first hike from the hotel, into the Picos.
We had a rather small map from the hotel but I had taken a bit of time the day before to plot the route on a GPS map app on my phone as back up. This proved invaluable as there were absolutely none of the yellow and white path markers promised by the lady in the tourist office in Potes.
The walk was stunning and challenging in parts - like the bit where we had to climb a pretty steep slope using narrow sheep tracks to reach the return donkey track! There were spring flowers everywhere. Ones I could identify (never been that good with plants) - violets, cowslips, primroses, early purple orchids, forget me nots, daisies, gentians, bluebells, mallow, green alcanet and many more I don’t know the names of.
We walked outwards uphill through meadows and a steep valley and returned at a higher level, all the time with fantastic views of the snowy Picos. I have to admit that my dodgy knees were hurting and my back twinging by the time we finally spotted the little village of Cosgaya where we were headed. I think we did really well (not lost once!).
Later in the afternoon we drove up to the cable car and parador of Fuente Dé. Needless to say it is closed for servicing at present which was disappointing but we still got to see the impressive granite rick face and a field of frisky horses at the bottom.
